Feb 7 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is close to a deal to pay $1 billion to settle a U.S. criminal investigation into how it disclosed customers' complaints about unintended acceleration years ago, the Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources as saying on Friday. Toyota could reach a deal with U.S. authorities within weeks, the Journal cited the sources as saying, ending a four-year probe into one of the Japanese automaker's most embarrassing international episodes.

BEIJING, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp and its two local joint-venture partners sold about 85,600 automobiles in China in January, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said on Friday. That follows a 19.4 percent year-on-year jump in December and a 40.7 percent rise in November, which were partly boosted by a low base from last year when sales tumbled due to a surge in anti-Japan sentiment following a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.

TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp raised its operating profit forecast for the financial year by 9 percent to a record 2.4 trillion yen ($23.7 billion) as the yen, which has fallen against the dollar by some 9 percent this financial year, buoys profits of the export-oriented car maker. The world's best-selling automaker said on Tuesday it now expects to post 2.4 trillion yen in annual operating profit, up from its previous forecast of 2.2 trillion yen and higher than its pre-Lehman crisis record of 2.27 trillion yen from six years ago. The revision was almost in line with the 2.44 trillion yen estimated by 23 analysts.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. auto market will continue to mildly recover, likely totaling 16 million vehicles this year, a Toyota Motor Corp executive said on Tuesday. "In the United States, we basically think the market will continue on a recovery track," Managing Officer Takuo Sasaki told a news conference to brief on Toyota's third-quarter earnings. Sales of new light vehicles in the world's biggest market totaled 15.58 million in 2013. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Dominic Lau)

By Yoko Kubota NAGOYA, Japan, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is one of the conspicuous success stories of Japan's radical efforts to revive its economy, with profits rebounding and its 60,000 workers in Japan hoping this year to receive their first base wage rise in six years. But when the carmaker reports on Tuesday quarterly profits that are likely to be nearly five times what it booked a year ago, its continued revival will mask a much less optimistic mood among the auto industry's smaller firms.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp has alerted U.S. safety officials that seat material in several vehicles, including its top-selling Camry sedan, fails to meet fire retardation standards and could result in a recall. Toyota said on Thursday it had stopped selling eight recent-model vehicles equipped with seat heaters in North America following an advisory about fire risk from South Korean safety officials. The world largest automaker said it did not believe a recall was necessary, however.